VHF Maratrac

[smokeeater861]

Hello all,
I'm obviously new to this forum, but have been a long standing member at Radioreference for a while. I've been reading a bit and you guys seem to know what your talking about too, especially with Moto. products.

I just bought a Motorola Maratrac, 144-174 split, off eBay and wondering if you guys have any tips for me on it. I'm mainly going to be monitoring that split and a little 2m, 146+, Txing. I will be running R58A/U coax through a 3/4" NMO mount and an Antenex Quarterwave, 144-152 split, if any of that matters. Absolutely NO Txing on anything but 144-148, just monitoring.

Comments, Constructive Criticism, Tips, and Tricks highly encouraged and Thanks for your time!

[Tom in D.C.]

Start here:

http://batlabs.com/maratrac.html

Also try www.radioreference.com

Using the SEARCH function on this Board might also help you.

[smokeeater861]

Start here:

http://batlabs.com/maratrac.html

Also try http://www.radioreference.com

Using the SEARCH function on this Board might also help you.

Thanks Tom

[Jim202]

Like Tom has said, go pick up what information you can about the radio.

Your real challenge is trying to program the radio. Unless you already have the Motorola software,
a RIB and the cables to go from the radio to the RIB, it might be a hard road ahead. You might try
looking for someone in your area that can help.

With that said, unless you have already started to consider what frequencies you want in the radio,
it would be wise to sit down with a pad of paper and start trying to plan out how you want to set
the radio up. You will need the RX and TX frequencies for each channel (mode) to go into the radio.
If your going to use repeaters, do any of them require a CTCSS tone (PL) to access the repeaters?
This needs to go on the planning sheet.

You might want to group the frequencies by area of operation. Like if you drive into another region,
other than where you normally go. Put the channels together. Then you have the scan lists for the
different channels. Again, the scan lists need to be arranged by how you will be using the radio and
what area you will be in. I think that radio has the ability to have a different scan list for each channel.
However, you only get a max of 16 channels per list.

The control head has a number of buttons on it. Some are fixed use and some can be software set
for different functions. There is a HOME button that is programmable to go to a set frequency. You
can program a button for SCAN and it will toggle on and off. You can set another button for MPL
(multi PL). This is used to be able to have multiple PL tones available on what ever channel your
currently set on. However you need to make sure the channels is originally set to accept the MPL
use. Then you need to create the list of the multiple CTCSS tones. You only get a max list of 16
for the whole radio. However, you can set each channel to what ever tone it will normally use.

There are a number of other operator selectable features, but these are the most common.

Have fun with the radio.

Jim

Hello all,
I'm obviously new to this forum, but have been a long standing member at Radioreference for a while. I've been reading a bit and you guys seem to know what your talking about too, especially with Moto. products.

I just bought a Motorola Maratrac, 144-174 split, off eBay and wondering if you guys have any tips for me on it. I'm mainly going to be monitoring that split and a little 2m, 146+, Txing. I will be running R58A/U coax through a 3/4" NMO mount and an Antenex Quarterwave, 144-152 split, if any of that matters. Absolutely NO Txing on anything but 144-148, just monitoring.

Comments, Constructive Criticism, Tips, and Tricks highly encouraged and Thanks for your time!

[Bill_G]

I recall the Maratrac had an issue with the ignition sense line required to be within .7v of B+ or wierd things would happen during operation. Nothing more specific than that. The model came out in the 80's during the transition from conventional to trunking. Many customers switched over to 800 trunking, and subsequently I didn't see too many Maratracs get sold. I just remember the Maratrac SRN and having to install a relay to supply batt to the ign line.

I also recall battalion chiefs coming in with their own personal huge multi-page lists for me to program into their 128 mode Maratracs, and spending all day typing it in. aeiyiyi.

[Glen W Christen]

There was even a warning included with the cables with a new radio. You MUST have both radio power and ignition power tap the same power point or all kinds of strange things would happen.